Hi folks! Here’s all the info for the upcoming fabulous Holiday/Christmas party!
As you know (or may not), we’ve been offered the Palace Gardens for our Christmas party. It will include dinner with wine and champagne! All of this is at no cost to you or the club. How wonderful is that?! This is all brought to you by Judy and Merv Waldman. They’ve been so generous with our club. This is why we need RSVPs. So if you’re coming, click HERE to email us and we’ll get you on the list. Be sure to tell me how many! Significant others are welcome too!
Important info:
Date: Wednesday, Dec. 18th
Time: 6:00pm till 8:30pm
Where: Palace Gardens (Their website is here)
Address: 3100 Campbell Drive, Homestead
(across the street from the Homestead Hospital)
We’ll start out with cocktails and lovely cello music by Zackiel Eldridge, Jason’s son. Dinner will be served around 6:30. After dinner, the White Elephant gift exchange will take place.
ATTIRE
But, what should I wear?? Black tie is NOT an option, that’s for sure (well, if you have one and MUST wear it, we won’t turn you away). And it is South Florida, and chances are it’ll be too warm for an ugly sweater. But how about a tropical holiday attire? Ugly holiday t-shirt? Or, if you don’t have holiday wear, just come in casual. It’s going to be a nice party. Dress accordingly.
Now, lets discuss the White Elephant in the room… or is that Pink? I forget. Anyway, the White Elephant Gift Exchange is a fun way to play a game rather than just exchanging them. You don’t have to participate, but if you do bring a gift, you will get one back. If you don’t, you won’t.
But to join the fun bring a 5x7 or 8x10 photo as a gift. Do not put your name on it, and then put it in a gift bag or wrap it up some way so nobody can see it. This is anonymous! It can be a great shot, a funny shot, shots of people in the club, whatever you want. We'll draw numbers and #1 picks a gift, #2 can pick a gift or steal #1's gift and so on and so on. It’ll be a lot of fun!
Here’s a little something I found on the internet about White Elephant Gift Exchanges.
White Elephant is a gift exchange with an emphasis to “steal” gifts rather than exchange them. Most often, this type of gift exchange takes place at a party with other participants in attendance.
The game gets its name from the term white elephant as defined as something dubious or of limited value, or an object no longer of value to its owner but of value to others. So basically the game calls for people to bring “gag” gifts or gifts they received that they have no use for.
In our White Elephant gift exchange, each participant will bring a wrapped, unmarked photo print. But... those prints can be of any nature (keep it PG rated please). It can be an epic print of your most favorite time in the Alaska, or it can be a print of some photo you took when you were 10 years old, of your foot. Whatever kind of photo print you choose, you wrap it up nice or not so nice, but it must be wrapped or concealed somehow. No names and no identifying marks. No one will know who's gift is from who, or what is inside. That's the fun of it!
The gifts will be placed on a separate table, and the guests are given numbers as they arrive, or their names are randomly drawn, and they select gifts in that order — with a twist.
On the first turn, the person assigned with #1 picks out a gift and opens it so all can see what it is. On the second turn, the person assigned with #2 gets the choice of “stealing” #1’s unwrapped gift or choosing a wrapped one from the pile. If #2 steals #1’s gift, then #1 must choose and open a different wrapped gift.
As subsequent players take their turns, they either select a new gift or take any already opened gift from any of the other players. Have any player who has a gift taken away either choose a new gift or take an already-opened gift from another player.
The game continues with the following rules:
If someone steals your gift, you can steal someone else’s gift or choose and open a wrapped one.
Continue until everyone has had a turn for a gift. A turn is ended when an unopened gift has been opened.
A gift can only be “stolen” once during a turn. If a gift is taken from someone during one round, she cannot take it back during that same round. She can, however, take it back in a later round if she is in a position to select a gift.
A gift cannot be immediately stolen back from the player who just stole it.
Once a gift has 3 “owners,” the 3rd owner of a gift gets to keep it – it is retired and can’t be stolen again.
The gift exchange ends when the last wrapped gift is chosen and opened.
After the last turn, the person who started (since she didn’t get a chance at the beginning) can put back the gift and “steal” a gift according to the rules. This starts the gift exchange again (following the above rules) and ends when someone chooses or is forced to take the gift given up by the person with #1.
Ok, was that confusing or what?! LOL But those are the official rules I found on the website. It might be done differently at this party. However, that is the gist of it. Bring a nice photo print, or bring a gag photo print. It'll be fun however it's done.